No sooner had the news come out that guidelines had been issued to private carriers to treat members of Parliament as the lords of the sky, severe criticisms soon followed slamming the diktat from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or DGCA. The timing of such a policy decision could not have been more wrong given the amount of resentment against what is seen as the unnecessary privileges enjoyed by members of the political class.
Special passengers in the aircraft? AFP
"Private airlines would follow the order like a command. Air India has been doing it for years even when it was a monopoly and costs was not a problem. These outdated, obnoxious limits should not come to private airlines. Air India should also withdraw such facilities. Let Air India function as a commercial entity," former Air India, executive director, Jitendra Bhargava told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion.
"The private airlines must have the guts to question such a move by the DGCA. They should have the courage to ask the DGCA on what provisions of the law did they order such a thing. It is very unfortunate and it should not be allowed," Bhargava said.
CNN-IBN, aviation correspondent, Karma Paljor felt that such protocol burdens will affect the services of the low-cost carriers.
"The low cost carriers do not have the staff strength to offer these services. If the present staff is involved in protocol duties, the service will be affected. There is a cost involved as well. Even today, the front row seats which have more leg space, are booked for VIPs without extra costs. In fact, courtesy is being extended to MPs and media bigwigs by private airlines and there is an infrastructure already in place in many airports," Paljor said.
Aam Aadmi Party member Raghav Chadha, who took part in the discussion, expressed shock at the decision of the Centre.
"I am rather flabbergasted with the DGCA decision. We thought that the politicians would take some cue from AAP. The names of MPs who wrote to the DGCA expecting such facilities should come out in the public. My take is there should not be such flamboyant facilities. It is high time politicians realise ground realities," said Chadha.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O' Brien was of the view that all parliamentarians should not be targeted for availing such facilities.
"I have no problem with senior politicians or bureaucrats who have their bags carried by someone else or using golf carts. All senior citizens above the age of 60 should be able to use such facilities. When Mamata Banerjee was an Union cabinet minister, she would be in the queue like anyone else and also take the bus like everyone else to board the aircraft. But it would be wrong to generalise only the politicans in this regard. I have also seen top bureaucrats, legal bigwigs, and senior military officeras using these facilities," Brien said.
Another politician, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Kalikesh Singh Deo, chose to put it in a different way.
"Small things like late check-ins are beneficial when we have back-to-back meetings between cities. But this should not be at the cost of delaying the flight," Deo said.
Speaking of ways of curbing such practices, he said, "There is an element of VIP culture that exists and have to be done away with. If the existing facilities are awesome for all there would be no need for such facilities. If the DGCA or the airlines are firm on not extending these facilities to politicians on the condition of equal treatment for all, this culture would not emerge. At the end, if everyone decides on being humble it will help everyone."
Former Air India official Bhargava divided the MPs into three class depending on their behaviour patterns.
"Some MPs behave as ordinary citizens, some demand privileges and some airlines go out of the way to offer privileges to the MPs and they accept it. But today at least Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh was sensitive enough to say that no such rule was issued. Even if there is one verbally, it should not be implemented. The lounge facilities should be available to all passengers as per the class of their tickets. Our MPs should emulate how their counterparts abroad behave," he said.
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